Russia-Ukraine Conflict Hits India’s paper Supplies

New Delhi: The Ukraine-Russia conflict has put a limitation on global supply chains and transportation of various commodities has been majorly impacted. India’s paper imports are hit to such an extent that there is a two-month waiting period for oversea shipments.

According to industry sources, there has been a 42.8 percent increase in the price of paper due to delays in supplies. Lockdown in China has also increased the problem, they added.

Before the war in Ukraine began in February, the price of paper was Rs 70,000 per tonne, which has now gone up to Rs 1,00,000 per tonne, an industry representative said.

Due to the delays in paper supplies, publishers are not able to fix the prices of books, he added. This demand and supply gap is expected to rise further once the new academic season sets in early next year and the demand for books goes up.

As the raw material is sourced from China and Europe, the paucity of containers due to the Ukraine crisis has mainly led to paper supply constraints, industry sources informed.

Though paper is produced in India, it is the specialized pulp strand sourced from abroad, on which its manufacturing is dependent. So with dependency on domestically produced paper being less and imports getting costlier, the country is likely to face a paper shortage crisis for some more time, as sources said that shipments may remain impacted till March 2023, even as the Ukraine war continued to rage on.

Lockdowns in China, a major supplier of map litho paper, has seen paper mills shutting down there, industry representatives said, which has ultimately led to supply gaps.

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